Summer fun: Drive from Louisville to Cooperstown

A statue of J.P. "Honus" Wagner, stands outside the front of PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

America is full of baseball pilgrimages and road trips. Fenway Park in Boston turns 100 this year. Wrigleyville, the neighborhood around Wrigley Field in Chicago is the best baseball neighborhood in the country. California has five major league teams to visit. New York City has two major league teams and two minor league ones. Roadtrippers can enjoy the Pioneer League with stops in Montana, Idaho and Utah.

Click on the photo to see the best roadtrip in baseball

But for me, a road trip from Louisville to Cooperstown is the quintessential baseball journey. From the place where bats were built to its greatest shrine, with stops along the way at great baseball parks, major and minor. All but one day requires less than 200 miles of driving. You'll have to get out the team schedules to match up your drive dates with when teams are playing. But even in early spring or late fall, there's plenty for a fan to see along the way.

Louisville, Ky.

Baseball's favorite lumber yard

Over 125 years, Hillerich & Bradsby have made over 100 million bats, with the Louisville Slugger wooden bats used by top professionals finished in the old brick factory in downtown Louisville that visitors can tour. It's the one with the six-story tall bat out front. Bats are made of various quality grains of white ash and maple, with the best and tightest grain going to the pros. Though its onetime near-monopoly has been undercut by newcomers like Mizuno and boutique batmakers like Marucci (Albert Pujols' favorite), Louisville Slugger still accounts for 60 percent of the bats used in the American and National Leagues. Along with a museum to the history of the bat, visitors can stop by and have an ash wood bat fashioned with their own name emblazoned on the barrel.

The Reds' history goes back to the year after the Civil War ended, when a group started the Red Stockings as an amateur club. It went pro in 1882, eight years before the National League was born. The oldest major league club plays at the Great American Ball Park on the banks of the Ohio River. When the Reds hit a home run, a steamboat whistle goes off near the scoreboard. It's usually easy to get walk-up tickets except for games against the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Cleveland Indians. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame is adjacent and open even when the Reds are out of town.

The Columbus Clippers are the reigning champs of the highest level of minor leagues, having won the Triple-A Baseball National Championship Game for the second straight year in 2011. Now affiliated with the Cleveland Indians, the team formerly was affiliated for nearly three decades with the New York Yankees. The team plays in 10,100-seat Huntington Park, which has won accolades for incorporating an old sawmill and other industrial buildings beyond its fences into the park layout.

Related Links

A statue of J.P. "Honus" Wagner, stands outside the front of PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
At the Hillerich & Bradsby Factory in Louisville, Ky., a family poses for a snapshot beneath the giant bat that towers over five stories. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
In the atrium of the Hillerich & Bradsby Factory and Museum in Louisville, Ky., a family plays near a giant sculpture of a ball and glove. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A young Reds fan gets a ride past a mosaic titled, "The Great Eight," inside the home of the Cincinnati Reds, the Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati. The mosaic shows Cincinnati Reds players: Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion, George Foster, Ken Griffey and Cesar Geronimo. From 1970-76, the Reds won five division titles, four league pennants and the consecutive World Series of 1975-76 with these players. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A statue of Cincinnati Reds pitcher Joe Nuxhall stands outside the Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati. In 1944, at age 15, Nuxhall became the youngest player to debut in the major leagues. The All-Star player spent a total of 16 seasons in the majors and was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
With the Ohio River and the hills of Kentucky as a backdrop, a small crowd gathers for a late summer game in 2004 at the Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati to watch the Reds play the Phillies. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
AAA teams are often where major-league players go to rehabilitate. Here Hideo Nomo pitches for the Columbus Clippers in 2005 when he was a member of the New York Yankees. The Clippers are now affiliated with the Cleveland Indians. JAY LAPRETE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A view of downtown Pittsburgh from the upper deck of PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A young Pirates fan looks up at the 12-foot bronze statue of Willie Stargell outside of PNC Park in Pittsburgh. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg pitches for the Harrisburg Senators during a rehab start last year. Bryce Harper, the sensational young hitter for the Nationals also has played in Harrisburg. BRADLEY C BOWER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
This is a view of the marble staircase leading up from the Rotunda in the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. At top is the Capitol Dome modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. PAUL VATHIS, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eric Anderson of the West team from Huntington Beach celebrates as he prepares to cross the plate for the winning run in the sixth against the Japanese team from Hamamatsu City for a 2-1 win in the Little League World Series championship game on Aug. 28, 2011 in South Williamsport, Pa. ROB CARR, GETTY IMAGES
Huntington Beach pitcher Braydon Salzman delivers a first-inning pitch in a baseball game against Cumberland, R.I., during pool play at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa., on Aug. 19, 2011. Huntington Beach went on to win the championship. GENE J. PUSKAR, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The forests between northern Pennsylvania and southern New York are where much of the lumber that makes baseball bats is harvested. DON HEUPEL, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Damaschke Field in Oneonta, N.Y., opened in 1939. The Oneonta Tigers, a minor league team, moved to Norwich, Conn., in 2010. It is now used for college league play. Courtesy of The Daily Star Oneonta, N.Y.
A visitor touches George Herman (Babe) Ruth's National Baseball Hall of Fame plaque hanging in The National Baseball Hall of Fame Gallery in Cooperstown, N.Y. HEATHER AINSWORTH, THE OBSERVER-DISPATCH
Hall of Fame plaque of Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The bat and ball from the 61st home run Roger Maris hit in his 1961 season are shown above the bat and ball from the 60th home run Babe Ruth hit in his 1927 season, which are on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM
Abner Doubleday, who served as a Union general in the Civil War, and according to myth is credited with being the originator of baseball, is said to have created the game in 1839 at Cooperstown, N.Y. "The only thing Doubleday ever started," Branch Rickey said, "was the Civil War." THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Businesses with a baseball theme line Main Street in Cooperstown, N.Y. This entire upstate village is where the summertime visitors throng the community's museums, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Farmers' Museum, located just across Route 80 from the Fenimore Art Museum. TIM ROSKE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Baseball's greatest pilgrimage will take you from from Louisville, Ky., to Cooperstown, NY.

1 of

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.